Sponsoring African child
 

Does anyone have any information about programs that 'sponsor' a particular child? Thanks.

Lin: I am very involved with building the Rwanda Girls School www.rwandagirlsschool.org

We are still raising money for school building so no particular girls yet but once the school launches there will be specific girls in need of sponsors.

You can sponsor a highschool education for a particular Maasai child through:
http://www.maasaifoundation.org. This organization is affliated with Campi ya Kanzi.

i apologize if this is inappropriate, but after volunteering in africa last summer, i was innundated with requests for "sponsorship" from various people working at the ngo.

i still have the street address of one family. if you are interested, i can provide it to you. these are regular people, the father works as a driver for a non profit where the workers literally haven't been paid in months.

i am not sure if that's what you mean by sponsorship, or if you are looking for a rural program. these people are urban and live in uganda.

they have two small babies. i think by 'sponsorship" they mean someone to send them money for school fees, which is probably like $30 us a year- but i honestly have no idea.

you can write to him if you'd like and see. just let me know how to reach you if you want and i will give you his contact address.

kerikeri :)

I sponsor a child in Uganda through World vision. The program in Africa is called 'hope child'. Take a look at WWW.worldvision.org. they are working in many countries in Africa.

I sponsor a child in northern Tanzania through Plan International:
http://www.plan-international.org/

The organization works to alleviate poverty and help children in developing countries to realise their full potential.

Take a look at BEADSforeducation.org. This is a small grassroots organization founded a by a woman in New Jersey. [The home page at the moment is full of information about a walk-a-thon in Kenya. Just click on "sponsorship."] For several years, my daughter and I have sponsored the education of a girl who is my daughter's age. We have been in Kenya twice visiting her and her family, and last summer took our sponsored friend traveling with us for several days. I can put you in touch with the founder of the BEADS organization if you are interested. Whatever you decide to do, I encourage you to do something. I pay less than $400 per year, and that pays a full year of secondary school fees for our friend. Without the sponsorship, she would not be in school. In Kenya, only primary school is free (and that is a great and new thing).

Sponsorship of a particular child or just one family may cause some difficulties in communities. this may not be a popular opinion by-and-large. I commend every effort to assist in a wholistic way - such as school projects as mentioned initially by PredatorBioligist above.

There are alternative views to individual child sponsorship. It could be quite contraversial and I am not here to cause disruption. I am a traveller, and hope my thoughtfulness about where we go, and perhaps more importantly which organistations we support while we are at home - makes a difference in the world.

An organisation in which I am an ordinary member - is APHEDA http://www.apheda.org.au/ and their Make Life Fair Everywhere campaign. I reiterate that I am affiliated to APHEDA as an ordinary member.

The approach here is non-religious, skills focused and assists families, workers, communitites in a range of ways - health, education, occupational health and safety, micro-credit etc. It makes sense to me to provide for organisations that focus on the whole picture - but there are other views too.

Some people believe that aid itself is part of the problem. Maybe it is our responsibility to become as educated as possible before making a choice.

I am not affilated with any of the following organisations or views, but present them here as an alternative. These links were found using the following search terms in a search engine
"alternative to child sponsorship"
"community development schools africa"
"water zambia"

http://live.newint.org/issue111/keynote.htm
http://live.newint.org/issue194/simply.htm

Examples where donations assist whole of community development
http://www.wateraid.org.uk
http://www.africaeducationaltrust.org/africa.html

Again I reiterate I am affilaited with APHEDA but not with any of the other links on this page - just wished to show the range of options available.
Good luck in your decision Lin on how to best make your contribution.

You can sponsor a child through the Tanzanian Children's Fund:
http://www.tanzanianchildrensfund.org/

They have a great website with lots of information, and you can also visit the Rift Valley Children's Village if you go to the Karatu area.

I've been to the Rift Valley Children's Village and am now starting a sponsorship of a child there. I also sponsor a child in Ethiopia through World Vision (and previously Kenya.) There is another organization in Kenya you might also check out, Special Ministries. (www.kenyahope.org.) I'm sponsoring several children and an office worker with them. Each organization takes pains to assist the entire community, not just a few individuals. My WV Kenya sponsorship ended because the Pokot community they had been working with reached self sufficiency. I actually visited their Nairobi offices and discussed that with them. Special Ministries has set up a series of Hope Centers throughout Kenya. I've also spent several days with their Nairobi office staff and am impressed with their people and their work.

www.righttoplay.com is an international organization that works with children in the refugee camps in Afrika. You can visit their website to get a feel for the work they do. I have heard personal stories of athletes that have supported this NGO and its all good.

Hurray, I knew I'd find good info on this board. Thank you for all your responses which I intend to investigate individually. I probably won't, however, look at any sites that aren't personally recommended. I could also have done a search on the web but would prefer to deal with an organization that someone has had experience with. Again I appreciate all your replies, (none of which were inappropriate, kerikeri!)

I totally agree with you Thembi and I do support several causes comparable to those you mention. I think the idea of individual sponsorship is different in that it allows the rewards associated with meeting the child that one is helping, and perhaps communicating with him or her for many years. I suppose it is a bit selfish, but I'd like to try something a little different than having my money go into a huge generic pot. I'm aware that the 'pots' are important. I'm only speaking for myself and I simply have a desire to try to help an African person that I can see, touch, and hear, and perhaps help more than once along their life path. I choose Africa because of what she means to me, thanks to my opportunities to travel there. Bless all of you for reaching out.

kerikeri, Can you please clarify a few things?

Sorry that I'm clueless. What is the ngo? When you were inundated with requests, are you saying that the Ugandan people were asking you for help, or that people back home were asking how they could help?

Did the family you mention give you their address personally? Do you know them? Do you have any other details?

Thanks.

This I do know, Lin: whichever of the many worthy programs is a "fit" for you, your involvement will make a huge difference in at least one person's life.

Just one more comment -- about the idea of giving someone aid as a problem. I can only speak of the program that I know, BEADS for Education; but I would hope that most of these programs are similar. BEADS requires that the family of each sponsored girl pay at least 5% of the tuition--not easy in Masai tribal culture, especially for a family with many kids. Once a sponsored girl has finished secondary school, she works "for" BEADS as an intern teaching in one of the country's public primary schools and its community for a year before continuing her education. The public primary schools in Kenya (those that I have seen) need all the help and resources that they can get. The three interns I met and spent a day with last summer are translating really basic English readers into Maa, so that the students at their school can learn to read in Maa first. The student we sponsor--who traveled with us for several days this summer--got the same "ear-full" from me that my own daughter gets: "You have this opportunity for an education. Work hard, study hard, and do the best that you can. This is what I expect of you and I hope you expect of yourself." I do not view that as being charity in the hand-out sense at all. Sorry for the long post....

Rose,
I've been researching these links tonight. BEADS absolutely seems to have their act together. I like what you say about students having to contribute to their own cause and to give back once they have graduated.

Here is what else I think. I understand that my $30 per month might be seen by some as a 'handout' problematic to the recipient's personal development. However, I believe that even when supplied with schooling, food and a uniform, these kids have many other obstacles to overcome in their lives and will not have the 'silver spoon' mentality that my own kids probably have...the thought of what some of them have been through -losing parents to AIDs or violence, living in extreme poverty, and God knows what else - helps to convince me that my 'handout' is not going to make things worse.

Thanks for caring and sharing!

Just a few more notes about www.worldvision.org. They not only offer sponsorship for individual children, then work with entire communities, since there is very little you can effectively do for one child if the entire community is devastated.
While they have a great reputation for crisis relief, they also look into the long term sustainability of the community, and offer support such as different varieties of agricultural crops (that might handle weather or disease better); healthcare, education, clean water, etc.
In Africa, they have a big emphasis on helping communities that have been devastated by AIDS. But ongoing they also stress Malaria prevention, and access to clean water, and child vaccines.

So the child sponsorship covers specific child needs such as uniforms for school, but it works hand in hand with the world vision programs that serve the entire community.

The ultimate goal is to make the community self-sufficient, so there is a lot of emphasis on infrastructure (clean water; schools) and on education (including not only school for children but also health & hygene education, and agricultural training). They also provide microloans. These are used, for example, to lend a woman enough money to purchase a sewing machine which she can then use to support herself and her family.

Lin -- I agree with just about everything that has been said by all the people who have taken their time to respond to you. Infrastructure change, HIV awareness/prevention training are all a part what will effect change.

If you do decide to contact BEADS, please be patient. It really is a grassroots organization. You will not get a slick reply or probably even a prompt reply. If you email Debby Rooney at BEADS, feel free to put in the "re"
line "referred by Betsy Kimball." ["Rosenose" is our female cat.]

My own daughter -- very much a child of privilege -- has benefited more than I can tell you from not only our visits to Africa and relationships there, but from the work she has done locally (Sacramento) to support BEADS. I hope and trust that my daughter's relationships and concern will last throughout her life.

hi lin

can i also first say how nice it is to see how many people with familiar names are doing so much to help? i think you, lin, and everyone else, are really special for doing so.

i, personally, know this man. every morning he came to pick me up to take me to the office where i worked (as a condition of my work, the sending organization required this- sorry to bore everyone with this detail).

ngo stands for non governmental organization, which means it is funded privately, not as part of the government. instead of fancy cars and foreigners running things, every worker is ugandan and they have to find their own funding every year using the limited resources they have.

as anyone who has spent time in africa has likely experienced, foreigners are assumed to (and let's face it, do) have an endless supply of money, so in the course of my time, i can think of exactly one person who did not ask for money, for medicine, for school fees. that's what i mean by 'sponsorship comment."

there is a bottomless well of need, but clearly every human being who goes to africa cannot fix the systenmic problems- it's a personal choice how one would like to help.

anyway, on my final week of work, this man gave me a photo of his babies and told me their names and wrote them on the back and wanted me to keep the picture. i didn;t want to take it, because pictures are expensive and because i wanted him to have it, but i took his contact details. his exact phrase was that he wanted me to find him a "pen pal" for his children, which, i believe is a euphemism for sponsorship (since the baby can't write, and his english is not good enough to have an office, job, that's why he's a driver).

i'm still in touch via email with the office (ngo) and have asked my friend there to reconfirm his address. i am certain that he does not have internet at home, but when there is power, the office has a computer hookup.

he's a young man, i would say late 20's. he's married. he's extremely responsible (he was never late getting me)and kind and spent hours trying to teach me words in ugandan. i cannot tell you much else because frankly, my ugandan speaking skills are non existent. i would say he is the equivalent of a young family man in the us, except without english language skills he will never be anything but a service type worker (driver).

i have an account at lonelyplanet and if you do, too, i can private message you, if you tell me your "handle" there (how i wish we had pm functions here).

or if there is some other protected way for me to send you his address without my posting it publically, please suggest it and i will happily do so- i can put it in the mail if you'd like.

you can write to him if you want and just say hi and see what happens. who knows maybe he does only want a pen pal (doubtful!). if it doesn't work out there is certainly no obligation to him or to me.

thanks for wanting to help!

kerikeri :)

Betsy, sorry I jumped the gun and called you by your cat's name! I'll post again when I find out more and make some decisions. Thanks for your help, I'll certainly use your name as a referral. I wish I had thought of this sooner while my daughter was still home - she leaves this summer for college. We'll see, maybe I can draw her in sometime in the future.

ann_nyc: Thank you for your comments. I read the link that Thembi posted and there are certainly facets to child sponsorship that I had not previously considered. However it does seem that the reputable companies are already on top of these issues and are trying to assist the community as a whole, as well as the child. It seemed from the articles (live.newint.org) that the main concerns are that one child might benefit but not the community; that the benefiting child might experience resentment and divisiveness caused by envy; and that the activity that most benefits us, the givers, which is the communication aspect ie receiving letters from the sponsored child - is described as a big hassle for the organization and a money-drainer since they must pay staff to handle correspondence from sponsors and to oversee the replies. And I guess it's true that some sponsors try to press their religious beliefs on the child.

Thanks to this article and to Thembi, I will ask some careful questions before committing, and consider how my letters might impact the child.

kerikeri, I posted my last post at the same time as you, so just saw yours. I thought this over and decided that while there's definitely an attraction to sending money to a particular family, I would feel most comfortable at this point in doing things through an organization who will oversee the use of the money. I have no doubt that this young man is reputable and a hard worker, and I wish him and his family the best. Thank you so much for telling this story, it brings home how desperate these people are, asking help of a stranger - and yet, also how courteous, because he did not come right out with it!

i think everyone is working toward the same goals, so good for you for helping in whatever way you choose.

kerikeri :)

I sponsor many children through many organizations large and small. Before you make your final decision take a look at:

www.galileeschool.org

This is the website for Galilee Primary School, Waddington Secondary School and the Holly House group of children's homes in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. These schools are supported by Kenya Kids In Need a US nonprofit based in California.

I have been to Kenya 5x since Oct. 03 and have seen first hand the positive impact our support is having.

Check us out. I think you'll like what you see!

Holly
Take the pledge for Kenya's Kids!
http://www.pledgebank.com/BooksforKenya

Just a little aside: I think World Vision does good work but.....
When I was going to South AFrica on my own to be an HIV/AIDS physician, someone from World Vision called me to"sponsor" my work. At the end of a very nice conversation they asked if I "accepted Jesus Christ as my savior" I am Jewish so the answer was no. That ended the conversation. I think this is very short sighted and hypocritical. So if a Dinka in Darfur is animist and not Christian, do they let them die??

I'm glad to hear you came to the conclusion that you'll work through one of the many good recognized organizations. PredatorBio, the school sounds wonderful, so keep us posted.

I think thembi's point is well-taken that it may not be the best way to just get a name on your own and send money to one family. I can see waves of ramifications. And, at the other end of the scale, a small consideration is that it won't be a tax deduction.

This is not directly a child organization, but most of these people who have applied for small business loans are supporting children. www.kiva.org

I was thrilled to find out today that my African loanee has made another repayment to Kiva. Not because the money will come back to me. It is not repaid until it is paid in full and at that point I will turn it around and loan it to someone else. But it meant he was alive and his business was doing well (he is in Kenya).

What is fun about this is that it's not a long term committment, you can just go on and make one loan (the minimum is $25) and track it. You get to choose your country, then your person, learn about their business. Someone at the other end has pre-screened the applicants. Most are asking for amounts around $300-500 and the track record for repayment is high.

I understand what you're saying Lin, about the pleasure of knowing you helped a particular person. Kiva does that. I'm not saying do this instead of the other ones in this thread at all, only adding one more.

A message to all:

Every second guest I meet gives money towards people. As good as this is there are just so many people doing it. I would like to say to everyone to rather give the money to animals/wildlife. If every single one of you gave to wildlife instead the rest of the world would still be giving to people. The human population is growing but the bush is declining very rapidly and needs more help in my opinion.
Just a thought!

Jackssid2, maybe add some links to good African animal causes here?

clematis,

Did you get a chance to look at the wild dog collar project thread? It was up a couple weeks ago!

Hari, I haven't been reading the board for months until just recently. I ran a search and found it - thank you!

But the point of my post was for the poster who wanted to promote wildlife causes - he/she should come back and post some links of their favorite causes.

Hari, it's your fault I'm still awake.

I followed the links and got to this page:

http://www.predatorconservation.com/...og_project.htm

If you love wild dog, read these riveting accounts of how hard they are working to save them from poachers and traps. It is inspiring.

I sent my donation and in the PayPal page to the left it said something about send instructions to the merchant. Clicking that opens a box where you can then designate that you want your donation to go to the Painted Dog Project.

These are wonderful, brave people working very hard to save the Wild Dog.

kimwhits,
I can't say anything about the particular conversation you experienced, but it is an explicit part of the mission statement of the organization to supply aid regardless of the religion of the recipient.
It is unfortunate that an over-eager staff member offended you by their question, but I'm sure that it was not meant as a litmus test for aid.
I think that their track record around the word proves that they do not "let people die" if they hold another religion -- they have saved literally millions of lives of people coming from all different belief systems.

Clematis,

Yes, the wild dog project was the one i was referring to! and i agree with you, the predatorconservation trust are putting in - a great lot of effort to save the dogs in Zimbabwe.....

Rgds
Hari

This organization, NaDEET
www.nadeet.org
does not sponsor long term sponsorship of individual students, it does have sponsorship for individual students for its educational programs http://www.nadeet.org/donations.html

Its mission is to run educational programs on sustainable living for Namibian students. Local schools provide transportation to NaDEET (usually by rented bus from 100s of miles away) and then NaDEET provides food, lodging, and programs for a week in a desert environment for the group.

If you visit their site you will get a good idea of the project. I have done volunteer astronomy programs for them each time I have visited the area and the children, many from very poor families or orphans, are wondeful to work with, excited to learn, and very appreciative of the opportunity they have been given. NaDEET is funded by donations and the overhead is very, very low. If you are ever in the area at one of the near-by lodges (Wolwedans, Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge, etc.), try to arrange a visit.

I have always had problems with sponsorship of children or the needy in Africa when it came to donating to big organisations. My reasoning behind this has been one of believing that much of what I was donating would be going to bureaucracy and administration. Please don’t think I am saying that it is always what happens, it is just that I feel it happens much to often.

When I started up the “Ikamva Lethu Trust Fund” for the kids of the Kayamandi township near to Stellenbosch 6 years ago it was clearly stated in the founding documents that no monies are allowed to be spent on bureaucracy or administration. These functions had to come from voluntary sources. Thus all funds go in one direction and that is to be spent on community projects as well as education. This has proved to be hugely successful in the sense that all monies are spent on what was originally intended for it to be spent on by the donor.

Furthermore another aim of sponsorship in the trust was to not only educate those being sponsored but also to ensure that a relationship was built up between child and sponsor.

All of the above has resulted in the fact that we now have 42 children who have moved on from Afrocentric dancing classes to being wonderful ballroom dancers. From the disciplines that ballroom dancing teaches we chose kids to go from “poor” schools to “better” schools and sponsored them accordingly. 23 of these children are all at “better” schools this year. By “better” I mean that they originally were in classes of 50 learners (that’s the name for scholars in SA) and now they are in classes of 20 learners. This has resulted in such a better all round education that even I have been astounded at the results

Take the case of one of our young stars viz. 9 year old Onezwa who after our finding her a sponsor moved from her 50 learners/class to a better school with 20 learners/class last year. Two weeks after going to her new school her teacher called me to say that she felt that Onezwa was having difficulty with her vision. This resulted in us doing vision tests on Onzwa immediately and within days she was in spectacles. Obviously it was a case of kudos to her teacher but what really concerned me was how many kids like Onezwa are in need of spectacles but because they are in classes of 50 teachers are so overloaded that they miss these sort of issues. All I know is that sorting out Onezwa’s problem resulted in the fact that we changed a young persons life overnight. The most important point in this thread of discussion is that Onezwa has a sponsor (Jennifer) who presently is working in the Antarctic and no matter where Jennifer is she is always in contact with Onezwa via email, videos etc. So Jennifer was fully aware of all that happened to Onezwa during this very crucial period of her life. Up until now I have been the email go between linking Onezwa and Jennifer but this year we have appointed volunteers who have email facilities to act as mentors to all of our 23 children who we have sent to “better” schools. These mentors also act as the go between to improve the relationship between child and sponsor. As a matter of fact we don’t just ask for sponsorship we ask of sponsors to become involved in encouraging our kids directly too. In this manner Jennifer was continuously supporting Onezwa during her changeover to spectacles with emails etc. When Onezwa received her specs (she looks awfully cute in them) the first thing she asked me to do was take a picture of her to send to Jennifer In the same manner our 23 children in school all have pictures of their sponsors and even some of sponsors family pictures proudly pasted on walls in their rooms at home

Onezwa’s story is one of many that I can tell. 23 children in better schools is the most we can handle at this stage in that we are also on a learning curve in terms of what to do and what not to do with the sponsoring of children. For instance since last year we identified that the children should NOT be 100% sponsored and that the parents have to also carry a load of the costs involved to educate their children, after all the child is their responsibility. Thus this year the parents pay for all school transport costs that the children incur. When it comes to orphaned children we make an exception and pay the transport from our trust fund. More important though is that we also have the parents support and the whole household becomes involved with the sponsors. A highlight is when a great school report comes in or the child achieves something on the academic or extra mural front because when this happens everybody (Child, family, mentor and sponsor) share in these joys. Make no error there are lowlights too and these are similarly shared with everybody supporting one another. When or if the sponsor meets the child and his/her family we attain the highlight of all highlights. As most of the sponsors are visitors who travelled with me as a tourguide many of then have met the children they are sponsoring or are about to sponsor.

The crazy thing is that we don’t need sponsorship for any children this year and this mail is MOST CERTAINLY not being put on this board so as to attain sponsorship as we do quite well in this department already. What I want to try to do is pass on to all Fodrites reading this thread some good guidelines that I have picked up via the above that I feel you should look out for when sponsoring a child, be it in Africa or for that matter anywhere in the world.

1.Ensure that your monies are not going to be spent on a bureaucratic function

2.Make sure that you know the child you are sponsoring and if possible attempt to find out about his/her family and all else that is important to him/her

3.Try to meet the child that you are sponsoring

4.Maintain strong contact with the child and send photos, etc to the child so that he/she is well aware as to who you are. MOST IMPORTANT is that if you have children of your own introduce them to the child you are sponsoring and allow a relationship to develop.

5.Don’t just donate money; donate your time and care as best possible.

6.Be wary of organisations where you simply donate money to “a kid in Africa”. I am NOT saying don’t donate to these groups; all I am saying is be careful and ensure that the money goes to the child. To establish this do research into the group you are thinking of using by finding out from other sponosrs what their experiences have been within the operation. (Just like Lin is doing in this thread).

My experience is that if you land up with a successful sponsorship where a strong relationship develops between yourself and the child that you are sponsoring then you cant do much better to find anything as satisfying in the world. You have no idea what it feels like to make a difference to one young person in this world when you attain this situation so go for it!

Very proudly part of the wonderful ((r))nation of South Africa